UF seminar to provide teachers with insight into East Asia

June 6, 2006

WHAT: The Florida Seminar for Teaching on Asia is an eight-session course that gives middle and high school teachers an overview of East Asian history, culture, politics and art while providing an opportunity for interaction among colleagues at the K-12 and university level who teach about Asia. Participants will produce a lesson plan for use in their classrooms, and learn how to implement Asia into their varied curricula. The seminar also includes a one-day follow-up session in the spring to see how it worked. The seminar will be led by Joseph Murphy, director of the Asian Studies Program at the University of Florida, and will also feature guest lectures by other specialists. Benefits for teachers include college credit or in-service points, honoraria, funding for library materials, and the opportunity to apply for study tours to China, Japan and Korea.

WHO: The University of Florida Asian Studies Program, in conjunction with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), hosts the Florida Seminar for Teaching on Asia for middle and high school teachers. The NCTA is supported by a grant from the Freeman Foundation.

BACKGROUND: Signs of the increasingly important role Asia will play in the 21st century are everywhere, in economics, politics, culture and society. Knowledge about Asia will help Florida students to negotiate that world in a more productive and sophisticated way. To this end, the Florida Seminar for Teaching on Asia endeavors to bring sustainable information about Asia into the classrooms of middle and high school teachers of social studies, art, language and more. The seminar provides teachers with the tools and confidence to bring a global perspective into the classroom.

WHEN: Sept. 16, Oct. 14, Nov. 4, Dec. 2, Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 10 and April 14. Each seminar session will run from approximately 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

WHERE: Terrace Room, Norman Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville campus.

CONTACTS: Amisha Sharma, coordinator for education and training, can be reached at asharma@clas.ufl.edu or 352-392-2464. Joseph Murphy, director of the Asian Studies Program, can be reached at urj7@ufl.edu, or at 352-392-0275 after June 15.